A StarNewsOnline Blog

The emporium for all things literary

John Shelton Reed, author of “Barbecue” and co-author of “Holy Smoke” (among many other books) is pushing a new holiday for North Carolina: “Wilmington Barbecue Day.” Reed, a Kenan professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been promoting the 1766 incident when Patriots protesting the Stamp Act through a barbecued ox — planned for an event by royal Gov. William Tryon — into the Cape Fear River. This, he noted, took place six whole years… Read More »

John Shelton Reed, author of “Barbecue” and co-author of “Holy Smoke” (with his wife, Dale Volberg Reed), has found some new information on a barbecue-related incident in Lower Cape Fear history. It seems that in February 1766 — while Stamp Act protests were at their hottest — the royal governor, William Tryon, noted that a militia muster was coming up. All able-bodied men were supposed to turn out (in theory), and since rowdy Stamp Act protests had lately broken out… Read More »

Mardi Gras, “Fat Tuesday” — the time when folks in New Orleans and elsewhere blow off steam one last time before Lent — is almost over. Still, you can enjoy Mardi Gras all year, through books. Nicki Leone put me onto Veronica Brooks-Siglar’s posting at Literaray Hub, listing great new books about New Orleans aka the Crescent City, NOLA and the Big Easy. Among her suggestions: “The Sound of Building Coffins” by Louis Maistros, a novel about jazz, voodoo, love and… Read More »

Food was the general theme of the Nov. 2 issue of The New Yorker, and the primary excuse to track it down is a long essay from Calvin Trillin (“American Fried,” “Alice, Let’s Eat,” etc.), “In Defense of the True ‘Cue.” In it, Trillin devotes himself to exploring the differences between Eastern and Western North Carolina barbecue (“slight and subtle” in the words of Craig Claiborne, who grew up in Mississippi and thus can be forgiven). His main guide is… Read More »

I’ve been a friend of Debbie Moose’s since, well, right before the Wars of the Roses, and I’ve been a fan of her food writing all the way back to her days with the Raleigh News & Observer. Moose wrote the definitive book on deviled eggs, pretty close to the definitive book on potato salad and one of the best-ever guides to cooking for a tailgate party. So it’s especially good to see that the University of North Carolina Press… Read More »

About This Blog

This is an emporium for all things literary: occasional book reviews, local book news, items about authors (mostly from the Cape Fear area but occasional visitors) and miscellaneous rants.

The usual author is Ben Steelman, feature writer and book columnist for the Star-News. He’s that shaggy, slightly smelly character you spot lurking in the back aisles of your local bookstore. Physically, he has more than a passing resemblance to Ignatius J. Reilly, hero of John Kennedy Toole’s “A Confederacy of Dunces” — some observers have noted other parallels as well.